There is nothing I love more than wrapping my big Canon in plastic and rushing out into a big storm to capture the sharp contrasts, the emotion and the subliminal sense of drama of a big storm. Yes, I have pneumonia (early stage) and a mean spirited cough, but it only takes a second if you don’t bother to get dressed and run outside.

This morning, I woke up in a coughing fit so severe I thought I might pass out. I happened to be texting a friend who works in the medical world and Maria was sound asleep and I couldn’t bear to wake her. This, I know, is the foolish way in which many men perish.

My friend and i are both up at night late, and we often text one another at 3 a.m.

I told my friend the coughing was intense, I was having trouble breathing and was getting light-headed. She asked me if I had taken the steroid medication Karen Bruce gave me the night earlier, and I hadn’t, i heard that it keeps people awake and amped-up at night.

She is a gentle soul, but direct. “Goddamn it Jon,’ she wrote, “take it, you will feel much better. This stuff really works.” I did and it does. In a few minutes, I had stopped coughing and was breathing normally.

I suppose it is stupid for me to go outside in a storm right after being diagnosed with pneumonia, but the truth is, I am not brave or macho about it. I need to get rid of this coughing, it’s awful. But my happiness at  taking photos in a storm greatly outweighs any slight danger from going outside for a minute or two.

I was fashionably dressed in my boots, slouch beanie and heavy blue bathrobe. Remember, I am a fashion icon now.

Pneumonia is not that big a deal,  even for me. My rule about sickness is you have to take it seriously, but can’t give it your life if possible.

This mania – if I can walk, I blog and write – is sometimes bitterly controversial in my family, although Maria is no different than me, even worse. At least I go to the doctor when I am sick (or the nurse-practitioner), she has been to a doctor once in the decade I’ve known her.

Her light might be falling off and if I suggest she make a doctor’s appointment, she just looks at me as if I were made and says “a doctor/ What for?,” as if I had suggested she sell her quilts on the moon.

I am also inspired by Fate, who has no idea that there are howling winds, freezing temperatures, ice and snow. It’s all the same to her. Even the faithful Red is eager to get inside. And Gus is happy to hug the wood stove.

It was cold out there, I will admit, and after a few shots I liked, I yielded to bullying and came inside to be warm, blog, and then go to bed for awhile. I love photographing storms, it is always a great creative challenge for me to figure out how to capture the feeling of them.

And besides, it’s good for the lungs to breath clean and fresh air. I hear the back door opening, and so I might want to wrap this up and head upstairs for a while. I’m not afraid mind you, just polite.

Stay dry and warm, where ever you are. I hope the Dystopian forecasts are off. In my mind, Mother Earth is singing her song, and I am hearing it. I’ll sleep much of the day, and creep out in the late afternoon.